Slow-feed manger.



J. lI BROWN.

SLOW FEED MANGER.

APPLICATION FILED nec. 9. |916.

Patented June 5, 1917.

IN1/Enron cfa/522 [J5/ww? WIT/VESSES A TTOHNE YS JOI-IN INGERSON BROWN,OF WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SLOW-FEED MANGER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 5, 191 7.

. Application filed December 9, 1916. Serial No. 135,992.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, .Ier-IN I. BROWN, a citizen. of Canada, and aresident of Westfield, in the county of Hampden and State ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Slow-Feed Manger, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to mangers and particularly to what may be termeda semiautomatic feed manger1 and has for an object the provision ofmeans which will insure the discharge of feed from a storage reservoirinto the manger proper.

Another object in view is to provide a manger which may be quicklyapplied and removed.

A still further object in view is to provide a manger having a main bowland a storage compartment, together' with means operable by the animalfor insuring a proper feed from the storage compartment to the bowl.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectionthrough a manger disclosing an embodiment of the invention. i

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a manger disclosing an embodiment of theinvention,

part thereof being broken away.

Fig. 3 is a section through Fig. 1 on line 3-3.

Fig. 4C is a detail fragmentary sectional view through Fig. 1 on line1-4.

Referring to the accompanying drawing by numerals, 1 indicates a bracketwhich may be secured to the wall by screws or in any other desiredmanner, said bracket being arranged to accommodate the depending fingers2 and 3 as shown in Figs. 2 and 8, said fingers being rigidly secured inany suitable manner to the band 4. Band 4 is intended to encircle themain bowl 5 and the storage compartment 6. The bowl 5 may be made in anysuitable way, preferably by being formed from sheet metal and having abead7 at the upper end which rests against the band i whereby the bowlis supported and stiffened.

When the device is in use the grain is placed in the compartment 6 andis slowly fed into the bowl 5. In order that this feeding may be carriedout the bowl 5 is provided with an opening 8 which may be closedentirely or partially by a sliding member or door 9 held in place by aclamping screw 10 and also, if desired, by the guiding members 11 and 12which merge into a reinforcing member 13 carrying the projections 14Cand 15. The projection 14 carries a pivotal pin 16, which pin extendsthrough the finger 17 whereby said finger is pivotally mounted. Finger17 is provided with a feeding nose 18 preferably wider than theremaining part of the iinger so as to stir the grain immediatelyprevious to its passage through opening 8 and thereby allow the freeowing of the grain under the action of gravity.

The upper end of the finger 17 is pivotally connected to the bar 19 bypin 20, said pin having a sufficient loose movement to allow a properback and forth movement 'of bar 19, said movement being caused in onedirection by spring 21 acting against the end of the hollow projectionand at the other end against the shoulder 22 formed on bar 19. Bar 19 atits inner or free end is provided with an enlargement or knob 23adjacent which a washer 2% of yielding material is provided, preferablya rubber washer. This arrangement is such that when the horse or otheranimal is using the bowl 5 the animal may strike against the knob 23-and operate finger 17 for loosening the rain which sometimes becomesclogged adjacent the opening 8. This will allow the grain to iow freelyinto bowl 5 until the compartment 6 is empty. When any animal first usesthe device the striking of knob 23 more or less often will be somewhataccidental, but usually horses and other animals will becomesuiiiciently acquainted with the device to operate the same designedly.

In forming the container 6 the same is provided with a rear wall whichmerges into a bottom, said bottom being connected to the bowl 5 by anydesired means, as for instance, by solder, while the front wall 26preferably extends interiorly of the bowl 5, as shown in Fig. 1, one ofsaid walls being provided with an'angle plate 27 for supporting the lid28. The top or lid 28 is connected to the outer wall 29 by a suitablehinge 30 and normally rests against the member 27, as shown in Fig. 1. Asuitable slotl 31 is provided in wall 26 and also in the wall of thebowl 5 for accommodating the clamping screw 10, whereby the clampingscrew 10 not only clamps the door 9 in proper position but assists inclamping the flows into the bowl 5, the flowing action continuing untilthere is enough grain in the bowl to act as a closure for opening 8. Assoon as the animal has eaten the grain in the bowl 45, or part of thegrain,

Y some additional grain will :feed into the bowl 5 to take the place ofthat removed. Sometimes the moisture in the grain will cause it to clognear opening 8 or sometimesthe grain, by reason of its form orconstruction, will clog. Vhen this has been done a slight blow againstthe vknob 23 will cause 'the nose 18 to move back and forth, which willbreak or stir the clogged part of the grain, whereupon the same willagain start to iiow into bowl 5. In this way the animal is insured ofreceiving the full amount of grain in the container 6 and is notsupplied with an Vover-quantity at any one time, whereby none of thegrain is wasted.

i l/Vhat I claim is:

A manger of the character described, comprising a bowl, a container forfeeding material into the bowl, a stirring member pivotally mounted inthe container and arranged with one end adjacent the discharge sectionof the container, a spring for normally holding the stirring member in apredetermined position, and a bar connected with vthe stirring memberextending into thebowl, said bar being'operable against the action ofsaid spring whereby the stirring member Vis moved in one direction bythe bar and in the opposite direct-ion by the spring.

JOHN INeERsoN BROWN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for lve `cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

